The final regular season event of the 2013 FLW Tour was a big one. Tour rookie Casey Martin not only recorded his first win, but he did so with the 2^nd-heaviest 4-day total in FLW history and the 2^nd-largest margin of victory ever.

Martin, along with others, had expressed concerns about whether the fish would hold up. They needn’t have worried. Weights were impressive again today. In fact, Martin weighed the tournament’s biggest bag of the week today at 30 pounds and an ounce. His total weight was 103 pounds, 3 ounces.

Martin also sacked the 2^nd biggest stringer all week when, on Day 2, he brought more than 27 pounds to the scale. The 2 big daily weights contributed to his margin of more than 22 pounds.

Martin used a Picasso Bait Ball Extreme umbrella rig. He had to work hard sometimes to get the bass to fire off, but once he got them going it paid off handsomely. He began the morning of the final round with a double catch – a pair of 5-pounders – on one cast.

The umbrella rig played a big role this week. It was also the weapon of choice for most anglers who caught news-making limits of bass that weighed over 40 pounds this spring. But many FLW Tour pros finished high in the standings by dragging a Zoom Ole Monster worm around the ledges.

Wesley Strader used the big Zoom worm on some spots way up the river that he has spent 20 years learning to fish. He said they weren’t the types of places a guy would pull up to and just start catching ‘em. And once he found the right casting angle, it was critical to stay on it. The biggest reason Strader ran north was because most of the field went downlake.

Dan Morehead had similar thoughts about fishing in a crowd. His solution? He went shallow. He said the ledge fish all seemed to be on the obvious topographical features, so in order to fish something less obvious, that still held quality fish, he went to the bank. Now he can go to the bank and cash his 4^th place check.

Morehead got the day started right when he caught a 9-pounder early this morning on a Zoom Magnum Trick worm with a tungsten weight on fluorocarbon line.

Andy Morgan sewed up his first FLW Tour Angler of the Year title this week. He also made the cut and spent a little time in the hot seat before his friend and fellow former AOY winner Morehead knocked him off. Morgan finished 5^th.

He used the Zoom Ole Monster to catch “95%” of his fish. He did some “basic ledge fishing, off the beaten path” as the community holes were pretty well worn out. He made 50-to60 stops each day. That sounds like a hectic pace but as for his fishing, “I’ve learned over the years that slow and steady wins the race.”

And it wins AOY trophies as well. “You can’t win Angler of the Year if you’re not at the weigh in,” said Morgan in praise of his reliable Evinrude E-tec outboard.

 

For the official leaderboard, click here:  http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/flw/tournament/2013/6948/lake-chickamauga-professional-results/